Section 10 - Final Evaluative Essay.
 CTCollab, or creative-technologies-collaborate, was a project that evolved significantly and rapidly from it's initial conception to the final project. Whilst the initial idea was simply to create a selection of sound effects and host them online, the project evolved to become a platform for communication between students of the creative technologies. Whilst the project never lost the sound effect design element (as this would be a serious problem for the client) the scope and focus of the project altered drastically and due to this, numerous difficulties where encountered.
The rational for this project was the fact that, whilst I could finish the sound design for my client on this one project, the problem of animators and film-makers lacking communication and access to sound designers would still persist, not only during the clients third year project, but for all other students of animation and film-making in the creative technologies department. It is important to note that this rationale did not in fact stem from the client, but from a misunderstanding whilst discussing my project with another animation student. It later became in the clients interest after discussing this idea with him at which point he asked me to create a platform of communication and the initial project changed.
There where a few other participants that took part in this work, many of whom had a hand in the testing of sound effects. Their criticism and advice helped me to refine the sound effects collection into something that was of a high standard. The main assistance I received, was from my illustrator, Catriona Power, a first year animation student. Despite the artwork being severely delayed due to constraints on her time, the custom logo, icons and avatars where excellent, and where what made CTCollab, in my opinion, a professional looking web forum. Organising these various resources was a challenge and I found it extremely difficult working with people of whom I had a friendly relationship with. It is difficult to convey a sense of urgency and set deadlines when the client and the illustrator are both good friends. The organisation of the artefact also suffered due to a lack of commitment from myself during the first few months of it's development. Looking back, I feel that I sought too many shortcuts, which inevitability failed, and due to this, delayed the release date of the web-forum.
Looking at the project reflectively and analytically it is clear to me where the strengths and weaknesses are. The artefact, I feel, excels in it's layout, design and functionality - The web forum functions as intended and I feel that it provides an easy to understand and, clear method of communication with other members. I also feel that with the help of my illustrator I was able to select an aesthetically appealing colour scheme that fulfills the clients criteria of sleek and minimalist. I am also happy with the sound effects themselves, despite being in relatively low number, I worked on them extensively and I feel that I have created content to the best of my current ability and improved my skills in creating and editing sound effects. I am also pleased with the responsiveness of the website, during the initial development of the website I was fearful that, due to constraints on my budget, the website would be slow or unresponsive. I was glad to see that the website responded quickly and responsively, with so far no problems. Finally I also feel that the artefact is strengthened by it's multiple aspects, not only providing sound effects to my client, but assisting others, as well as myself, in collaborating with one another for future projects.
In contrast to this I feel the artefact also has areas that it could be improved upon considerably. The first of which, in contrast to the previous point, is the way in which it covers many aspects, despite mentioning this as a merit it can also be viewed as problematic. This is unfortunately due to the lack of organisation and planning that I had during the initial stages of the project, this resulted in a large work load later down the projects development and as such I feel that more could have been done to develop the sound effects and the website, examples of this include; Guides on various pieces of software created by the online community, a larger collection of resources for users to use during launch (hence attracting more users who in turn may add to the websites) and finally supplying my client with 100% custom made and recorded sound effects, which was unfortunately not possible due to constraints on time.
Further faults with the project are its lack of user-base, due to the final draft of the website being delayed in its release their was a lack of advertising and hence the user-base was lacking. In some ways we could see this as a failure to meet the second criteria that my client requested. In future I wish to develop the website further in this regard, hopefully gaining more registered, active, users. Both the client and I view the project as a potentially valuable resource in our future projects.
A final fault with the project is potentially its reliance on HTML templates. As both phpBB and Wordpress are pieces of software that make web design easier, the project, in a sense, lacks a slight aspect of originality. The reason for the artefacts slight reliance on this software is my own limitations in understanding HTML. Despite initially trying to learn HTML I realised that the task was much harder and more time consuming than I had initially expected. Even with my fathers help with HTML, I was unable to script an entire website and forum ( A task that, when reflecting on, was foolish to undertake). On the other hand it's reliance on pre-coded open source software has perhaps allowed it to become more professional, and cheaper, than expected and could potentially be seen as an advantage.
As previously stated, the artefact / project has numerous problems and definitely needs further development to get it to the stage I envisioned. Although this is unfortunate, I am determined to develop the site further in future, using it as a tool to assist in my projects and the projects of others. I feel with the correct advertising the website can grow to a point where it could even be recognized within the student body, whilst I am not saying that this is a definite, I feel that with more work the website, and it's associated community, can grow. To achieve this I will initiate an advertisement campaign in order to attract more people to the website. This will involve posters around Eldon building, an associated facebook and twitter page, and finally contacting the head of departments to discuss emails to students in certain courses who may have an interest in the website. I would also like to focus on external membership. People from outside of Eldon where always welcome to join and contribute to the website, but in it's current form it is poorly advertised and suited to members such as that. Creating contacts in other universities would be an excellent way in which to broaden the membership and hence generate more useful content and connections.
In conclusion I felt the project was a moderate success. I feel that I adequately met the clients criteria and did so in a way which involved my client in all aspects of the development process, ensuring that his views and opinions where taken into consideration. Unfortunately the criteria was not fulfilled to an extent that I am satisfactory with, the lack of user base on the web forum is a large drawback to the artefact. Further work will need to be done to develop that side of the artefact and if it is to effectively be used as a resource, work must continue to be done on it for as long as it is used. It is clear to me that more effective time management was required on this project as well as a much more in-depth planning period, If I where to undertake a similar project I would focus on improving the previously mentioned aspects.
